1. Field
The present invention relates to the field of electronic information dissemination, and more particularly, to apparatus and methods for formatting and displaying video information for use in television electronic publishing systems.
2. Art Background
Over the past 30 years, broad band television has become highly developed on global scale. Thousands of transmitters and millions of receivers are situated world-wide, in urban as well as remote rural settings. In general, television originated as, and has remained, an entertainment medium. However, technological innovation has provided the electronic capability to permit television displays to be utilized in order to access sizable and comprehensive remote data bases. By way of example, these data bases may include information related to stocks, weather, general and technical library services, as well as textual and pictorial representations of current periodicals.
Various systems have been proposed which attempt to provide data base access using television displays to viewers around the globe. A number of these systems are interactive, and permit a user to directly manipulate the accessed data base, by for example, requesting changes, calling for further details, etc. Other systems simply provide the user with the desired information in a fixed and unmodifiable fashion. See, H. J. Hindin, Videotext Looks Brighter As Developments Mount, page 89, Electronics, Aug. 5, 1982.
However, prior art television information dissemination systems, such as those described, require the use of hybrid equipment in order to prepare the requisite data for transmission. In addition, prior art television based systems require complex and expensive circuitry, such as encoders and decoders, in order to receive and display the desired video information. Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a system for television based information transfer which will permit the efficient transmission, reception and display of data to a user using simple, reliable and readily available technology.
The present invention provides a means for organizing data and inserting predetermined index numbers and other characters into a video signal, such that unique numbers and/or characters for each "page" of transmitted electronic data may be provided. As will be disclosed, the present invention provides apparatus and methods which permit the reception and display of electronic data base information on a television display using standard video technology.